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Shrek is a computer-animated film adaptation of William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book of the same name. It was directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson and animated by DreamWorks Animation SKG in May 2001. It was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2002. It was released on DVD on November 2 2001.

The name Shrek is taken from the Yiddish word שרעק (pronounced Shreck) meaning 'fear', 'terror', or (in its closest sense) 'fright', and the German "Schreck" with the same meaning. Shrek or Schreck is also a very common start to last names in Eastern Europe. People that have these last names often times collect items related to the Shrek movie or the original book in order to exhibit pride in sharing the name of a beloved movie character.

The film features the voices of Mike Myers as a quiet, erratic large green ogre named Shrek, Cameron Diaz as the beautiful and feisty Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as a talkative donkey named Donkey, and John Lithgow as the villainous Lord Farquaad.

The voice of Shrek was originally recorded by Chris Farley. After his death, Mike Myers was brought on to replace him. After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character and the movie was well into production, he asked to be allowed to re-record all of his lines in a Scottish accent similar to the one his mother used when she told him bedtime stories. Myers had also employed this character voicing for a skit during his Saturday Night Live tenure, and also for the character Stuart MacKenzie in the motion picture So I Married an Axe Murderer.

It was critically acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. It made notable use of pop music—the soundtrack includes music by Smash Mouth, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and Rufus Wainwright.

The film was extremely successful on release in 2001 and it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Walt Disney Pictures in the field of feature film animation, particularly in computer animation. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions.

Plot

The story tells how the ogre Shrek is forced by Lord Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona from an amorous dragoness for Farquaad to marry. Along the way, Shrek befriends a talking Donkey, and falls in love with Fiona.

Shrek lives a quiet and lonely life in his small swamp, until his peace is disturbed by the arrival of a host of "fairytale creatures" (like The Gingerbread man and Pinnochio), who were exiled by the nearby dominion of Duloc by its ruler, the vain (and exceedingly short) Lord Farquaad. One creature who escaped Farquaad's purge is Donkey, an extremely talkative donkey; he and Shrek travel together to Duloc in an attempt to rid Shrek's swamp of the intruders. After defeating many of Duloc's knights in a tournament, Shrek and Farquaad reach a bargain wherein Farquaad agrees to remove the creatures if Shrek rescues and brings to him Princess Fiona, a princess who is imprisoned in a castle guarded by a dragon, awaiting the knight who will rescue her. Only if Farquaad is able to marry a princess may he assume the title of King.

After many (mis)adventures in which Shrek is consistently irritated by the friendly but overly talkative Donkey, Shrek and Donkey manage to reach the dragon's castle (the dragon is a red-violet dragon with a pair of fin like ears, white spiked cheeks, and enormous folding wings). After Donkey runs out on a bridge and Dragon whips her tail out and knocks out most of the bridge, Donkey is cornered by Dragon. In an attempt to prevent himself from being eaten, Donkey sweet-talks Dragon (compliments her hygiene), causing her to fall in love with him. After listening to him say the relationship won't work between them, she carries him by the tail in her teeth (after he turns around and calls for Shrek). Meanwhile, Shrek rescues Fiona from Dragon's keep. She complains that he's not doing it right, saying that he should charge in on a horse with a sword and banner, like a proper knight - like all the other knights who have attempted to rescue her did. "Yeah," he says sarcastically, "right before they burst into flame!" As he opens the door, he sees Dragon with Donkey. The Dragon has brought Donkey to a private chamber and has wrapped him up in her long tail, and is now playing with him. Just as Dragon is about to kiss Donkey, Shrek knocks him out of her coils, and she kisses Shrek's butt instead; in a rage, she chases them through the castle. Shrek, Fiona and Donkey then escape from Dragon's lair. They make their escape and Dragon gets caught on a chain.

Shrek and Fiona initially dislike each other--Fiona is angered that her rescuer is an ogre and not the expected Prince Charming; however on the journey back they begin to like one another. Fiona reveals herself to be more than just a pretty face; when the trio is attacked by a French-speaking Robin Hood (who assumes that the ogre has kidnapped Fiona), Fiona proves herself to be a martial-arts expert and single-handedly defeats the attackers. Shrek, despite his tough and non-caring exterior, starts to develop romantic feelings for Fiona.

On the way back, Donkey discovers that Fiona is under a curse which causes her to turn into an ogre every night at sunset (and then turn back again the next morning). The only way to break the curse is to receive "true love's first kiss". While Fiona laments to Donkey that she is ugly, Shrek (who having finally made up his mind to propose is bringing flowers to her) partially overhears the conversation and thinks that Fiona is calling him ugly.

The misunderstanding causes a bitter split. Shrek and Donkey go back to the Swamp while Fiona and Farquaad make wedding arrangements, with Fiona desiring to be married before that evening's sunset so that Farquaad will never see her in her ogre form. Donkey follows Shrek back to his swamp; after an argument, Donkey informs Shrek that she was not calling him a "hideous, ugly beast". Together, they travel on the back of the beautiful Dragon they previously battled (who is now Donkey's girlfriend) to Duloc and crash the wedding (though not in time to prevent the vows from being taken). Farquaad and the assembled guests laugh at the notion of the ogre marrying the lovely Fiona. At that moment, the sun sets, and Fiona reveals her curse to all assembled. Farquaad, repulsed at Fiona's ogre form, orders her carried away. A struggle ensues, and Dragon crashes through the palace windows and devours Farquaad, spitting out his crown and belching. Donkey makes the cheeky remark, "Celebrity marriages! They never last, do they?"

Shrek and Fiona then exchange proclaimations of love, and he kisses her, but instead of this turning her back to a human being, she turns permanently into an ogre. When Fiona says that the kiss was supposed to turn her beautiful, Shrek says that she was beautiful. This ending stresses the relativity of beauty, thus lending the allegory its moral.

After the wedding, the song "I'm a Believer" is played while all the magical creatures visit.

Parodies and jokes

  • The castle in Duloc is an obvious parody of Disneyland, complete with a box office, turnstiles and ropes for queueing up patrons seeking admittance.
  • The character Lord Farquaad was modeled after former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who fired current DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg from Disney in 1994. That Farquaad is portrayed as being extremely short, despite Eisner being fairly tall, is supposedly because Eisner once made fun of Katzenberg being shorter than him.
  • Earlier in the movie, when the fairy tale creatures invade Shrek's swamp, the Papa Bear and the Baby Bear are there, but the Mama Bear is nowhere to be seen. But after Shrek explained to Donkey why he is better alone, when cutting to Farquaad's bedroom, we see what had happened to Mama Bear - she has been turned into a rug. (However, she manages to show up unharmed in the karaoke music video.)
  • In Farquaad's bedroom, when he is watching the mirror displaying images of the Princess, it appears he has an erection.
  • During the rescuing of Princess Fiona from the dragon, in the part when Fiona says where the exit is and when Shrek says, "Well, I have to save my ass," (referring to Donkey), there is a cookbook in the background about how to eat a knight.
  • When entering Farquaad's room, in the back of Farquaad's bed, there are paintings of himself. The middle painting show Farquaad rising from the sea. This is a parody of the Greek mythology of the Goddess of Love, Venus, doing the exact same thing, and of the Botticelli painting "The Birth of Venus".
  • In one scene, Fiona kills a blue bird by singing in an extremely high-pitched tone. This scene refers to Walt Disney's movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In that, Snow White is often shown singing with a little blue bird.
  • In the scene when Fiona is fighting off Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Fiona jumps in a still motion and the camera goes around her in mid-air, whilst she adjusts her hairdo. This is a reference to the movie The Matrix and the "bullet time" effect introduced in it. (Some of the rest of the fight moves and poses also parody Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.)
  • Shrek's fight with the knights in Duloc is a parody of a typical fight portrayed by World Wrestling Entertainment.
  • Fiona's "transformation" after she kisses Shrek is practically identical to the Beast's transformation in Beauty and the Beast.
  • In the background of the karaoke party one of the princesses can be seen doing a dance very similar to that of Elaine Benes from Seinfeld.
  • Some of the fairy tale "creatures" such as Snow White bear a striking resemblence to their Disney renditions.

Karaoke party songs

At the end of the Shrek VHS and DVD, many of the characters are seen dancing and singing in a karaoke party. Here are the numbers:

Box office totals

  • Budget - $60,000,000
  • Marketing cost - $45,000,000
  • Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $42,347,760
  • Total Domestic Grosses - $267,665,011
  • Total Overseas Grosses - $216,744,207
  • Total Worldwide Grosses - $484,409,218

Cast

Main cast

Minor cast

Songs and performers

A list of songs which were performed during the film. Songs which were included on the soundtrack album are listed in boldface.

Sequels

  • The producers have referred to Shrek as being in four parts, the fourth supposedly focusing on how Shrek ended up in the swamp where we meet him in the first movie, or how Shrek and Fiona are having trouble taking care of their baby.

Other media

Original story on which the film is based:
  • Steig, William (1990). Shrek!, Sunburst Paperback. ISBN 0-374-46623-8
  • Also several video game adaptations of Shrek have been published on various game console platforms.
  • In late 2005, Shrek was released on the Game Boy Advance Video format.

External links

See also

2001 films | Best Animated Feature Academy Award winners | Computer-animated films | DreamWorks films | DreamWorks animated films | Fantasy-comedy films | Films based on children's books | Films directed by Andrew Adamson | Parody films | Best Song Academy Award | Best Song Academy Award nominees | Shrek

Shrek – Der tollkühne Held | Shrek | شرک | Shrek | Shrek | Shrek | שרק | Shrek | Shrek (deel 1) | シュレック | Shrek | Shrek | Shrek | Shrek | Shrek | Shrek

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Shrek".

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